The NHSM Herp Club in partnership with Banneker Historical Park in Catonsville are conducting a BioBlitz to survey the grounds looking for and documenting all manner of herps – reptiles and amphibians. A BioBlitz is an intense period of biological surveying in an attempt to record all the living species within a designated area. While generating useful data for science and conservation they are also an excuse for naturalists, scientists, and curious members of the public to meet in person in the great outdoors and are a lot of fun!
SPACES ARE LIMITED
This important data will create a baseline from which future surveys can be measured and compared. There are 98 Herps in Maryland. What herps live at Banneker? What herps should live at Banneker? Are populations increasing, decreasing, changing? These are just some of the questions our data will help to answer. We will be utilizing the free app inaturalist to capture and synthesize the data we collect. If you are not familiar with inaturalist – please download it to your phone and play around with it. NHSM has a tutorial on its use on YouTube: https://youtu.be/WDo0VdjMDc8.
A full orientation to the BioBlitz will be held online via Zoom on June 9 at 7PM (RSVP HERE TO GET ZOOM DETAILS: https://marylandnature.wildapricot.org/event-4287938). It is highly recommended that you attend the orientation – but not required.
This is a full outdoor experience. Dress for the weather (RAIN DATE is JUNE 27). Bring shoes for mucking around and dry shoes to change into. Bring a camera or phone to capture the data in the form of photographs. Gloves to move rocks and trees are recommended. Families are welcome to bring kids. Children must be supervised at all times.
Please address any questions to bstrong@marylandnature.org
